How a brand proves itself is a brand decision, not a copy nitpick.
Yet it gets treated like a copy nitpick all. the. time.
Proof gets dealt with in the moment, at the asset level, by whoever's staring at a blank page, writing on a deadline.
This approach to proof is a miss, especially if your team is actually invested in understanding your ICP. Because when you do that kind of buyer intelligence work, you learn what kind of proof your buyer actually responds best to. And knowing what kind matters quite a lot, because not everyone weighs or accepts proof the same way.
Take the four buyer modalities (competitive, humanistic, methodical, spontaneous). Different types of proof take center stage for different buyers. A humanistic-leaning buyer, for example, will likely get more excited about testimonials and case studies because it’s proof delivered by an actual human, not brand copy. On the other hand, a competitive buyer wants to see the numbers.
And, yes, buyer modalities are flawed because they're built on personality tests… which are flawed. Still, the modalities are useful as a mental model for prioritizing which proof to lead with. The key to using the modalities successfully is knowing your buyer and what they respond to, so you can accurately place them in a modality. Per usual, deep buyer intelligence is required to do this well.
All that to say…
If you've done the deep work to really understand your right-fit buyer (and you know what makes them sit up and pay attention), then why wouldn't you architect your brand voice and messaging strategy to consistently prove your product the way your buyer needs?
Now, it's easy for me to sit here and say "make the call to prove your product’s efficacy/success/etc. at the brand-level". It’s not always that easy. I've seen firsthand how the team behind a brand wants to prove itself in a certain way but doesn't have the proof (yet).
I’d argue that not having the proof is actually a really, reaaaaally good reason to make this decision at the brand level. Because the order of operations (at a very high level) is:
Confirm what your right-fit buyer responds to via customer and prospect research (listening loops will help!).
Bake your buyer intelligence into your brand voice and messaging strategy.
Orient the team around how the brand behaves and what’s needed to fill the gaps, so the brand gets better at being itself.
Make the call, and the body of proof grows to meet it. Eventually, marketing (and sales!) get what they need.
‘Til next week,
Carolyn
P.S. This week’s newsletter is a spin-off of the analysis for our upcoming healthcare messaging trends and opportunities report. The report looks at 121 VC-backed healthcare SaaS homepage hero sections across 43 data points grouped into 20 themes. If that sounds like something your team could use, you can sign up here. (You’ll get the report the moment it's live.)
Off the clock…
📕 The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. After a spectacularly horrible baking flop, I cracked open this book. I haven’t mustered up the courage to try again yet, but when I do, it’ll be a recipe from this book.
🎥 The Odyssey. I’m a Christopher Nolan fan, and this latest release did not disappoint. This was also a good example of strategic editing (from the source material) to make the story more thematically cohesive.
Before you go…
My firm (Boxcar) helps sales-led B2B software companies turn their proven sales motion into a clear messaging framework that generates more qualified leads.
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